Features

References to speakeasies and bootleg whiskey bring to mind the dark nights, danger, speed and excitement of Prohibition-era rum-running off the coast of Cape Cod.
Rum-running will be the topic of a talk by Jeff Proctor of East Bridgewater at the Chatham Historical Society's Atwood House Museum this Sunday, Sept. 18.
“My talk will detail how Prohibition led to rum-running, a criminal phenomenon that turned ...

ORLEANS — As it's done for the past six years, the Orleans Pond Coalition is hosting its “Celebrate Our Waters Festival” this weekend, with more than 50 free walks, talks, sails and paddles.
The event takes place Friday through Sunday, and kicks off with an opening reception dubbed Smooth Jazz Under the Stars. Featuring Bart Weisman and his group, the event will include light appetizers, chowder, sandwiches ...

Mike Werbick’s lucky day came when a kidney donor was found for him. It happened to be his wife.
Now, with his life spared by the transplant on Sept. 15, 2015, he wants to give back. And that is why you’ll now find the Lucky Day Thrift Shop at 16 Route 28, West Harwich, just before the Dennisport line. It’s been open since the end of May.
The shop doesn’t operate on the donation-and-or-consignment model fam...

Some people don't enjoy talking about what they do for a living. Tom Daley, Director of Public Works for the Town of Orleans isn't one of them. He loves his job and he'll happily tell you why. It has just a little bit to do with the ability to get things done.
Since graduating from UMass Lowell in 1986 with a Civil Engineering degree, Daley has made it is goal to get things done, beginning with his first job w...

From Sept. 15 to Oct. 16, Cape Rep will present a ghostly tale which has left audiences breathless in London's West End since it opened in 1987, making it the second longest-running non-musical production in that district's history. Arthur Kipps, a middle-aged solicitor, is tormented by an episode from his past when he is visited by a terrifying figure in black while settling the estate of an elderly recluse...

From the profits of her two children’s books about her calico cat, Annie Patches, Chatham author Marty Koblish raised $500 for the Jimmy Fund and presented the check toward cancer care and research to the family of Emily Coughlin of Chatham.
Emily, now 11, will enter the sixth grade this fall. Six years ago she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. At the age of 4, she began 18 mon...

Even in the information age, some books are still banned in parts of America. To shine a light on this, the American Library Association (ALA) forms an annual list of “the top 10 most frequently challenged books,” along with celebrating the freedom to read during their yearly “Banned Books Week,” which is coming up on Sept. 25.
Playwright Kenneth Jones brings to life the true-life censorship sto...

The Academy of Performing Arts has long produced Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon’s large body of dramatic work, usually performing one of his plays a year. Last September it was the touching “Brighton Beach Memoirs;” this time it’s one of Simon’s lighter comedies, “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.”
Born in 1927, Simon has written over 30 plays and almost an equal number of screenplays (based m...

A few years ago Brett and Danielle Tolley learned about a group called the FisherPoets Gathering in Astoria, Ore.
“Gosh, there’s nothing like that on the Cape,” Danielle Tolley of Chatham remembers saying to her husband. “Why is the public so disconnected from the fishing community?”
And so in 2014 the Tolleys and their close friends Shannon Eldredge and Russell Kingman, also of Chatham, founded the Cape Co...

"Off the record, any Chronicle men around?" Both the Star and Bulletin are in the governor's back pocket during his run for U.S. Senate in an unnamed southern state, but not the crusading Chronicle in Monomoy Theatre's production of “Johnny On A Spot.”
Ellen Fiske, playing Chronicle publisher Mrs. Wigmore, marches right into the offices of Governor Jefferson Davis Upjohn to confront his chief of staff Nicky A...

CHATHAM – The last time I was on stage at Monomoy Theatre was in 1998, when I sat in as a juror in “Inherit the Wind.”
Seemed about time for a return engagement.
For the past two summers, my youngest son Lir has appeared in shows at Monomoy, one of the last true summer stock theaters on the Cape. This year, there were no roles for 9 year olds in any of the season's eight plays. Although disappointed, the fa...

George Bernard Shaw once said, “No man will ever write a better tragedy than ‘Lear.’” Doing justice to Shakespeare’s words is no easy feat. Elements Theatre Company deftly portrays King Lear’s tragic life with spectacular pageantry and suspenseful swordplay befitting the grand ruler.
The almost three-hour-long story begins with the aging King Lear of Britain (Brad Lussier) abdicating from his throne. Intending...